Chapter 59: The First Scene

The lower world, Canglanzhou, Lingyuan City.

Late at night, the sky is dotted with stars and the moonlight is cold.

The silvery white moon shines through the gaps between the swaying shadows of the trees, casting mottled spots of light. The cold wind blows through the swaying branches, like countless pairs of lonely, withered hands.

The bustling town during the day fell into endless silence at night.

Only occasionally one or two dogs barking in the alley and a drunk lying on the street uttering a few incoherent words, but other than that, there were no other sounds.

At this moment, flames burst into the sky.

Someone opened the window and squinted to see the direction of the fire.

There was a hint of uneasiness in his tone.

"Why does this burning place look so much like the Ruan family's territory to me?"

His good friend was sleeping soundly in bed.

Hearing his question, she turned over and replied impatiently.

"Are you having a nightmare? Why are you talking nonsense? The Ruan family is one of the most famous immortal cultivation families in Canglanzhou. They are also related to the Chu family in the upper realm. If anything happens to any of their families, their family will not be affected..."

Before the man could finish his words, he was grabbed by his friend, who pulled him by the arm and dragged him to the window.

"Look, look quickly..." The friend's voice was shaking, and his finger was trembling as he pointed at the distance, "You have good eyesight, help me see if that is the Ruan family..."

The man looked carefully, and his sleepy expression disappeared instantly, and he was awakened by the shock.

The fire burned very big.

It almost lit up half of the sky.

The blazing flames were like the flames of hell, fierce and ferocious, devouring everything it could see. Even from a long distance, one could still feel the scorching heat.

On a dark and windy night, it was the time for murder and arson.

This sentence popped up in the man's mind for no reason.

But...but that’s the Ruan family!

With the powerful Yuan Ying in charge of this immortal cultivation family, who in the lower world dares to mess with them? !

Are you tired of living crookedly?

…

The fire burned for three days and three nights.

They didn't stop until everything in the Ruan family was burned into a rotten shell.

During these three days, almost all households in Lingyuan City kept their doors shut and dared not show their heads or go out, for fear that the killers would become so desperate that they would not only destroy the Ruan family, but would also target them.

Until the cockcrow sounded again.

Only then did the brave ones gradually approach the Ruan family, as if they wanted to take advantage of the chaos to get a piece of the pie.

"…Is anyone still alive?"

Someone kicked the charred dead wood at his feet and said, "Looking at this, they are probably all dead."

"Who did the Ruan family offend? They were all killed overnight. Not a single one of the hundreds of people survived."

"Who knows?" The man in black snorted coldly, "If there hadn't been a furnace with the best qualifications that caught the attention of the Chu family in the upper realm, the Ruan family would have been liquidated long ago with their arrogant and bandit style."

"Speaking of the furnace cauldron..." The monk in white couldn't help but reveal an ambiguous look, winking at the man in black, "I heard that she was a stunningly beautiful woman. It's impossible that the assassins killed her as well."

The man in black sneered disdainfully, his words full of contempt and ridicule for Lu Ding: "Oh, you use your beauty to serve others."

After turning several corners, they didn't find anything good from the ruins.

Money, magic weapons, secret manuals...all seemed to be reduced to ashes in the fire.

When they were about to go home, they suddenly saw a woman.

She was wearing a goose-yellow skirt and a beautiful pearl hairpin on her head.

She was about fifteen or sixteen years old, with an unadorned face that was extremely beautiful, and a hint of childishness between her eyebrows.

She was sitting right in the middle of the ruins, with a little dust on her fair face, the glass earring on her right ear was lost, and the pearl hairpin on her hair was in disarray... She looked very wolfish.

But the wolf did not diminish her beauty at all.

Just the slightly raised pair of pale autumn eyes made the two of them hold their breath and their hearts almost stopped beating.

"This...this girl..." The white-robed monk's voice was stumbling, and his ears were red. It was obvious that he had not yet recovered from this stunning beauty. "Why are you here? Are you from the Ruan family?"

Good question.

Ruan Chao brushed off the ashes on his body.

Lost in thought.

He just went to the nearby sacred mountain to collect herbs for making elixir, and when he came back, he found that the huge Ruan family had turned into a burnt ruin.

All the hundreds of people in the Ruan family disappeared without a trace.

Not a single living thing was left.

He did find a few dry bones in the ruins, but the number was obviously not right. There were signs of a teleportation array being activated in the corner of the side courtyard. It was probably because the great Yuanying sacrificed all his cultivation and led them to escape to the mortal world.

However, the teleportation array is only a one-way channel. The cultivation of cultivators who go to the mortal world will be suppressed, and returning will be more difficult than ascending to heaven.

…It seems that they have been forced into a desperate situation.

Nguyen Chao sat here for a whole day and night, searching the entire ruins, but found nothing useful.

All the spiritual stones and silver he had accumulated over the years were burned in the fire.

Without the spiritual stones and without the protection of his family, Ruan Chao began to think about a way out.

He thought of his fiancé in the upper world.

However, his cultivation had just reached the foundation-building stage, and he had not even learned the most basic fasting. The teleportation array to the upper realm was in the northernmost Jingzhou Sea...

He also has the coveted furnace physique, and it is estimated that he will be captured and imprisoned by other immortal sects before he leaves Canglan Continent.

What to do.

Ruan Chao clenched his palms unconsciously.

The nails pinched the delicate palm, leaving crescent-shaped marks.

He felt a little pain and couldn't help but let out a soft hiss.

His fingertips were covered with tiny cuts, and his nails were cracked in some places, bleeding bright red. He had accidentally injured himself while rummaging through things earlier.

Ruan Chao's body was delicate and weak, his skin was very tender, and his foundation-building stage was completely unworthy of its name. All his spiritual power was stored in his dantian, and he could only mobilize a tiny amount the size of a hair. He had no way to protect himself.

Even a cultivator in the Qi training stage can easily capture him.

There is no way.

It's so terrible to be born with a furnace constitution.

No matter how hard you work, you are always working for others.

"Girl, are you okay?"

The concerned inquiries from the white-robed monk came again.

Ruan Chao withdrew his thoughts and shook his head slowly.

The monk in white took out a clean handkerchief from his bosom and handed it to her, "Your face is covered in dust, you should wipe it off."

If one is diligent without any reason, he is either a traitor or a thief.

Ruan Chao took a half step back vigilantly.

Did not accept his advances.

The man in black looked at his face like a wild beast and asked in a cold voice.

"Everyone in the Ruan family died, why are you okay?"

Ruan Chao: "I didn't say I was a member of the Ruan family."

He glanced at the two men's empty palms, whose fingers were also stained with ashes, and in an instant he knew why they were there.

"What are you doing here? I am doing the same thing. I just arrived a moment earlier than you."

Not only was the girl stunning in appearance, her voice was also as sweet and clear as an oriole.

It makes my heart itch inexplicably.

The monk in white laughed loudly: "It seems that we are of the same mind. However, this fire burned too cleanly. It is impossible to find any leaks from it."

Ruan Chao hummed in response.

He didn't want to get involved with these two people any more, so he turned around and left.

The man in black sneered behind him: "Zhao Er, your mind gets confused when you see a beautiful woman. When will you wake up a little?"

"Didn't you see the mole on her neck?" The man in black had a dark look in his eyes, his sight completely glued to the girl's slender back. He licked his lips and spoke like a poisonous snake stalking in a dark corner, "Apart from the furnace, who else would have such a gorgeous little mole?"

Just one look at it can arouse a man's deepest desires.

The monk in white robes looked suspicious: "What?! A furnace?"

Ruan Chao felt nervous.

It was his negligence.

When the Ruan family was still in existence, as long as the Ruan family's name was mentioned, not only would no one bother to notice whether he had a red mole on his neck, but no one would even dare to look up at him for a second.

Faced with an unexpected change, he only cared about whether he could dig out some means of survival from the ruins, and completely forgot about the need to conceal his identity as Fu Ding in front of others.

Nguyen Chao used his spiritual power to run forward at the fastest speed.

The monk in white and the man in black chased after him like a cat teasing a mouse.

"Brother Chen, if we chase after a weak woman like this, wouldn't it be bad if it got out?" Zhao Er showed a hesitant look, "Although she is a rudder, she is also a member of the Ruan family and has an engagement with the Chu family in the upper realm. If others find out, I'm afraid..."

Chen Ci interrupted him, "If you don't tell me and I don't tell you, who will know?"

"The noble young lady of the Ruan family was burned to death along with all the members of the Ruan family three days ago."

"As for the one we found... she is just a female disciple who ran away from a small sect."

"What does it have to do with Miss Ruan?"

Chen Ci lowered his voice: "Besides, don't you want to try the taste of the furnace? Instead of practicing double cultivation once, your cultivation level will improve by a thousand miles a day, and in time, even connecting the pills will not be a problem."

"Even if you get tired of it, you can sell it to someone else at a high price and exchange it for some treasures you never dared to think of before."

Zhao Er seemed convinced and said nothing more.

The distance between them and the cauldron is getting closer and closer.

It seemed that in the next second he would be able to grab the girl's soft arm, pull her into his arms, and smell the fragrance around her neck.

Nguyen Chao ran only a few hundred meters before he was panting heavily.

My vision went dark, my legs went weak, and my speed slowed down.

Not to mention trying to scam a cultivator, his physical condition is not even as good as that of an ordinary mortal.

Finally, I couldn't run any further and had to stop.

He pulled out a moist jade pendant from his neck, on which was engraved the word "Chu".

It was a magic weapon given to him by his fiancé Chu Xinglan.

He actually had a whole box full of these things. They were all gifts Chu Xinglan had given him over the years, and he hid them all under the floor of his room.

High-grade magic weapons will not be affected by ordinary fire at all, and can even withstand the full-strength attack of a Yuanying period cultivator.

But he dug deep into the ground but could not find any trace of those magic weapons. He estimated that they had all been taken away by the revenge seekers.

Nguyen Dynasty was very heartbroken.

The two of them probably thought he had nowhere else to go, so they stopped.

The man in black slowed down his pace and approached him step by step, with an excited expression on his face, determined to win.

Ruan Chao raised his voice: "Don't come over here."

Chen Ci just thought he was just bluffing.

He raised his eyebrows and, for once, softened his tone as he advised: "Don't even think about resisting. You are so delicate and tender. Only if you obey us obediently can you suffer less."

Ruan Chao frowned: "...disgusting."

The black-robed man's face darkened. He winked at the white-robed monk, and the two of them quickly attacked from the left and right, trying to grab Ruan Chao's shoulders and not give him any chance to resist.

However, before their palms touched Nguyen Chao's clothes, they were hit by the stream of light shot out from the jade pendant.

Blood oozed from the corners of his lips and he immediately passed out.

Ruan Chao: "I told you not to come over here."

Although the jade pendant is an offensive magic weapon, its skill is passively triggered and will only take effect when the Nguyen Dynasty is attacked.

After the light was emitted, the color of the jade pendant also became lighter.

It can probably be used three more times.

Ruan Chao squatted down, searched out their storage bags, and sent a trace of his consciousness inside.

These two were extremely poor; together they only had about thirty low-grade spirit stones.